Minimally invasive surgeries (MIS) are quite common these days. Not until very long ago, surgeries on the organs of a patient were performed by dissecting a substantially large portion of the body in the vicinity of the organ, in order to gain access to an organ. These surgeries involved many health complications after the surgery, thereby elongating the hospital stays, and raising the cost of the surgery. But nowadays, with the advent of computerized medical devices, it is possible to perform a topical incision (hence the term MIS), to gain access to the specific region of the organ, thereby allowing a greater portion of the society to gain access to the health services.
For example, in the past, the surgeon had to cut open the region of the abdomen above the liver, in order to be able to remove a tumor within the liver. But now, the surgeon identifies the exact location of the tumor in a computer tomography (CT) image prior to the surgery, and penetrates two small diameter medical devices through the abdomen, one for incision of the tissue of the liver and another for performing a suture after removal of the tumor, according to the identified location. In order to perform the surgery with these two devices, the surgeon penetrates also a medical vision device (i.e., an endoscope) close to these two devices, in order to obtain a real-time video image of the region of the surgery. This real-time video image can be displayed on a display, alongside the CT image of the liver, which was acquired preoperatively.
Reference is now made to FIG. 1, which is a schematic illustration of a system generally referenced 50, for performing a minimally invasive operation on an organ of a patient, as known in the art. System 50 includes a computer tomography (CT) image detector 52, a processor 54, an integral videography (IV) display 56, a surgical instrument 58, and an optical tracking system 60. IV display 56 includes a liquid crystal display (LCD) 62 with a microconvex lens array, and a half-silvered mirror 64. CT image detector 52 is associated with processor 54. Each of surgical instrument 58 and IV display 56 includes a plurality of optical probes (not shown). Optical tracking system 60 is connected with processor 54, and with the optical probes of surgical instrument 58 and of IV display 56.
Prior to the surgery, CT image detector 52 acquires a set of image slices 68 of a brain 66 of a patient 70, and stores the set of image slices 68 in processor 54. During the surgery, a skull 72 of patient 70 is fixed under half-silvered mirror 64, while a surgeon (not shown) penetrates surgical instrument 58 into skull 72. Processor 54 produces a CT image 74 of brain 66, according to the set of image slices 68, and projects CT image 74 on LCD 62. Eyes 76 of the surgeon detect an image of skull 72 through a light beam 78 which passes through half-silvered mirror 64, and also an auto-stereoscopic view of CT image 74 through a light beam 80, which is reflected from half-silvered mirror 64.